Original mimeographed 'Victory Order of the Day' signed in facsimile by Brig. Gen. T. J. Davis under the direction of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, one page both sides, 8 x 10.5, May 8, 1945. The order, distributed to chiefs of all general and special staff divisions, contains the text of Eisenhower's famous order proclaiming victory in Europe. In part: "The crusade on which we embarked in the early summer of 1944 has reached its glorious conclusion. It is my especial privilege, in the name of all nations represented in this theater of war, to commend each of you for the valiant performance of duty. Though these words are feeble, they come from the bottom of a heart overflowing with pride in your loyal service and admiration for you as warriors.
Your accomplishments at sea, in the air, on the ground and in the field of supply have astonished the world. Even before the final week of the conflict you had put 5,000,000 of the enemy permanently out of the war. You have taken in stride military tasks so difficult as to be classed by many doubters as impossible. You have confused, defeated and destroyed your savagely fighting foe. On the road to victory you have endured every discomfort and privation and have surmounted every obstacle ingenuity and desperation could throw in your path. You did not pause until our front was firmly joined up with the great Red army coming from the east and other allied forces coming from the south.
Full victory in Europe has been attained.
Working and fighting together in single and indestructible partnership you have achieved a perfection in the unification of air, ground and naval power that will stand as a model in our time.
The route you have traveled through hundreds of miles is marked by the graves of former comrades. From them have been exacted the ultimate sacrifice. The blood of many nations—American, British, Canadian, French, Polish and others—has helped to gain the victory. Each of the fallen died as a member of a team to which you belong, bound together by a common love of liberty and a refusal to submit to enslavement. No monument of stone, no memorial of whatever magnitude could so well express our respect and veneration for their sacrifice as would the perpetuation of the spirit of comradeship in which they died. As we celebrate Victory in Europe let us remind ourselves that our common problems of the immediate and distant future can be best solved in the same conceptions of cooperation and devotion to the cause of human freedom as have made this Expeditionary Force such a mighty engine of righteous destruction.
Let us have no part in the profitless quarrels in which other men will inevitably engage as to what country and what service won the European war. Every man and every woman of every nation here represented has served according to his or her ability and efforts and each has contributed to the outcome. This we shall remember and in doing so we shall be revering each honored grave and be sending comfort to the loved ones of comrades who could not live to see this day." In fine condition, with central vertical and horizontal folds.
Originates from the personal archives of Major General George 'Bobby' Erskine, a British World War II general who served as head of the SHAEF mission to Belgium from June 1944-August 1945.
